Amsterdam

Recently I went to Amsterdam - lovely city, of course - and now I want to read some books set there.

I've bought The Green Face by Gustav Meyrink and The Discovery of Heaven by Mulisch and look forward to immerse myself.

I also read MacLean's Puppet on a Chain years ago, maybe I should reread it, and the Franka comic books sometimes display an Amsterdam setting...

Anyone got further suggestions for great books set in Amsterdam that give you a feel for the city?

I've wanted to read The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch, but I haven't been sure that the over 700 pages will be worth it.

I did do a tagmash on "Amsterdam, novel" and the first two listed books were these (I have not read them)

A widow for one year : a novel by John Irving. The third part is set in Amsterdam, as the widow marries an Amsterdam policeman, and apparently a lot of the novel takes place in the Red Light District.

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan has less of Amsterdam in it. The reviews reference the deubt of a symphoney to be in Amsterdam, and another reference to doctors who practice euthanasia there.

Rather dated by now, but quite fun, are the detective stories by Nicolas Freeling featuring commisaris van der Valk of the Amsterdam police. (Freeling also wrote a series set in Strasbourg, with a detective called Henri Castang.) Van der Valk was made into a TV series (late seventies?) with British actors playing the Dutch characters and speaking English - very bizarre.

This is such a nice topic! I have been thinking about books to add and I will start with Amsterdam, the city I grew up in.

There are of course the books of A. C. Baantjer, which are translated in English. This I found out via LT. They are about a dutch police officer, De Kok in English, who solves murder cases in Amsterdam. Baantjer, being a former police officer himself, wrote about seventy books (and still going!). In my opinion, the early ones are the best, breathing the atmosphere of a long gone Amsterdam.

If you are planning on reading about Amsterdam in Harry Mulisch's work (touchstone doens't seem to be working), I would suggest reading The Assault , 'De aanslag' in Dutch. If I remember correctly, more of the action takes place in Amsterdam. In The discovery of heaven less of the action takes place there. (edited to add: I liked The Assault better and it is thinner)

One more. One of my all time favorite books is On the water by H. M. van den Brink. It is a story about Amsterdam around World War II, about two boys and their love for rowing. It is incredibly beautiful written and the story is small, but touching. For what it's worth: it is also very thin.

Happy reading!

I'll have to take a look at The Assault. To make this Touchstone work, I had to punch in (others), and it brought up the Dutch title.
You get the Touchstone for Harry Mulisch by bracketing only the last name, and then pressing (others) to get a short list of full names. LT doesn't seem to really appreciate Mulisch. I got the Assault to work once, and now I just got it to work again. But the top one in this message is wrong, and I can't correct it, perhaps due to activity of the LT server.

De Aanslag is definitely worth a look, although only a couple of chapters are actually set in Amsterdam (1956 and 1981). The most memorable section is probably the opening part, which is set in Haarlem.

(I haven't had the courage to attempt De ontdekking van de hemel yet, I'm sure I will sooner or later.)

Several of Gerard Reve's books have Amsterdam settings, though I don't think they tell you much about the city.

Non-fiction: What about Geert Mak? Simon Schama's The embarrassment of riches deals generally with Dutch culture during the Golden Age, but there is a lot about Amsterdam in it.

While loooking to see if "The Assault" was available in my library system (it is), I came across this volume: Amsterdam: A Traveler's Literary Companion / edited by Manfred Wolf.

I recently read The Apothecary's House by Adrian Mathews and must say I enjoyed it very, very much. The author has been able to capture the spirit of Amsterdam, and of the people of Amsterdam very well. The novel is set in Amsterdam, and apart from a few minor glitches, Amsterdam is described very accurately. I'd say, the author must have lived there for some time (although his biography doesn't mention that) or done his homework really well.

There is one feature of the supposed city's architecture, however, which I doubt. I won't say more about that, as it might prove a spoiler.

Living far away from Amsterdam, I really enjoyed this novel. Well done!

Living in Amsterdam myself, I am not really into reading novels that are situated here, but I would advice anyone planning a visit to read Geert Mak's Amsterdam. Non-fiction, history, but extremely readable, as the author concentrates on the people who lived their daily lives in the different neighbourhoods through the ages. I suppose this would give your visit an extra dimension, that is, if you are planning to put some steps off the beaten (red light) track!
Alain de Botton also gives some nice advice for the adventurous amongst you, in chapter 3 of The art of travel.

Geert Mak's book is available at 14 libraries in Nassau County on Long Island. (Isn't "Nassau" a Dutch word?)

I have recently seen Paul Verhoeven's two Dutch war movies, "Black Book" and "Soldier of Orange", both of which featured much Amsterdam scenery, as well as being good movies.

Soldier of Orange is based on a book called Soldaat van Oranje, the memoirs of Rutger Hauer's character, Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, which might be interesting as well.

I have not yet seen Verhoeven's "Turkish Delight", which is based on Turks Fruit by Jan Wolkers, one of the Great Four of Dutch post-war literature, so I don't know if that is an Amsterdam story.